York invests in Your Arts Barge!

City of York Council today approved the investment of £100K into the Arts Barge Project from the city’s Economic Infrastructure Fund.

This is a huge development for the project and one which means that we can now realistically aim to have a fully functioning venue by the end of 2013. While this investment won’t cover the entire costs, we’re already consulting with the city’s business partners to request match funding in order to make the barge purchase, refit and launch happen as quickly as possible.

We’ll be updating this site with more details regarding the investment and our plan for the next few months but, in the meantime, for all of you who have supported us for the past several years, who’ve given their time, talents and enthusiasm to this project, we want to say a massive THANKYOU – we couldn’t have got this far without you.

But it’s only just beginning. We’ve got some tough work ahead working not only on the barge itself but on the divided opinion regarding the Council’s decision to fund us. We’re confident that those who opposed the funding will eventually see the benefit it brings to York but, in the meantime, we need to get the right messages out there. Marcus Romer made a good start on our behalf in his letter to the York Press this week.

While the barge will give us a much needed hub for the project, it’s only the beginning of our plans for extending community engagement in the arts. We’re looking forward to being able to create more projects, with more artists, for more audiences in the future, and providing the community with a space that genuinely reflects their cultural influences and interests.

We’ll need as much support as possible to see this through to launch day and hope we can count on you throughout – whatever you can offer, the answer’s yes please.

And click on our facebook icon on the toolbar to check out what’s happening day to day with the barge and the project as a whole.